Mass Effect: Salvation
by Team Infamous
Summary: The attack on the Human colony of Zeus puts humanity on edge as a new rogue Drell Spectre brings up a forgotten enemy. The Grays are back and have begun attacking human colonies... on behalf of their Reaper masters.
1. Chapter 1

_**My first attempt at a Mass Effect Story. I loved the game and have become a self proclaimed expert. That doesn't mean throw any questions at me. I will say that I know a lot about Mass Effect. I know so much in fact that I can make a good story and not fill it up with bullshit. So I hope you enjoy this chapter, because I sure did. By the way, I realize that the Gray's are not an alien race in the Mass Effect universe and the destroyer class ship is not an actual Mass Effect ship class. Just work with me, for one I didn't want to just use a SSV Normandy copy as the main ship and also the Grays are a reported alien in many of the alien abduction stories that you will see on the television. They are an actual reported race of four foot tall gray people. I just made them a little more different so they could be bad ass.**_

**Chapter 1:**  
**The Grey Invasion**

"What is this?" Asked a man in his office.

"It's a dossier, of a N7 officer, Commander Gire." Said another man wearing an Alliance officer uniform.

"Another one, we've already have Commander Shephard off fighting the Geth as the first human Spectre. Why the hell do we need another one, Anderson?" Asked the man jumping out of his chair and grabbing the dossier from Anderson's hand.

"Udina, listen to me! If we have more than one, then we'll have more of a chance to get a human on the council. We could also give Shephard more help against the Geth." Anderson trying to strengthen his case.

Anderson was a very tall black man, wearing a alliance navy captain's uniform. Udina was also a black man, just as tall as Anderson, with greying hair, he wore an ambassador's suit signifying that he was the human ambassador to the galactic government.

"I don't care! A Spectre who can't hold his own in battle will only destroy humanity's reputation with the other council races. If he doesn't stand up to the task then he is no good to us. Besides we've already got a second human spectre, you and I both know that. You're argument doesn't help you." Udina said continuing to read the file looking up with an irritated face for just a second.

"But, don't you think that more human Spectres are needed if we are to not only improve our relationship with the other council races, but also to improve our chances of having a say in the Citadel!? If we can get more human spectres in, then we should have no trouble getting a human councilman. Besides, he's being accepted into Edmonton's Blood Dragons. You know the elite force of the System's Alliance, if they're accepting him, then he must be doing something right." Anderson said still trying to strengthen his argument.

"Do you even know where he is, Anderson?" Udina asked looking up at Anderson.

"Yes, he was recently assigned to the dreadnought SSV Everest, which is bound for the Turian homeworld of Palaven." Anderson answered.

"Then have the Everest make a one-eighty and come right back to the Citadel. I'll put his name in for recommendation. But he must be reviewed by another Spectre during a mission.

"Captain David Anderson and Ambassador Donnel Udina, could you please keep your voices down? These walls aren't exactly sound proof." Said an asari walking through the door behind the two men.

"Of course, forgive us for the distraction." Udina said sitting down in his seat.

"I thank you for agreeing to this Udina." Anderson said beginning to walk out of the room.

"It doesn't mean anything if he doesn't live up to your hype." Udina said beginning to type on a hologram of a keyboard.

* * *

"Commander, we have a message for you. It's from Captain Anderson... I thought he was on the SSV Normandy right now." Said a man walking up to me.

"Thank you. By the way, Captain Anderson became Udina's right hand man recently, Commander Shephard took command of the Normandy when he became a Spectre." I said accepting the message on my omni-tool.

"That's right, thank you for reminding me sir." Said the man saluting me before walking away.

"I'm... becoming a Spectre. I wonder why they're recommending me." I said with a shocked face after reading the message.

"Well, you're being inducted into the Blood Dragon order and getting their special armor. Maybe they think you could pull a Shephard and get into the Spectres." Said a man at a console.

"I guess... I better go tell the captain that we need to turn around." I said walking to a nearby elevator.

* * *

"We speak the truth Captain Rivers. The research colony on Zeus was attacked by an unkown force. All we know is that it wasn't a Geth attack." Said a hologram of a human wearing a suit.

"It's not the Geth!?" Exclaimed Captain Rivers as I walked into the communications room.

"The council has already sent the Spectre that was supposed to oversee the Spectre inductee, that you're carrying on your ship. The council has requested that you head for the Zeus colony and drop off a team lead by the Spectre inductee. The investigation will be his mission." Said the man.

"That's good to know. But before we continue I would like to know the specifics of my mission, sir." I said standing at attention as Captain Rivers turned to see me.

"Commander, I'm sure you recognize the President of the United North American States. We're going to ignore the orders we just got from Anderson. The Alliance colony of Zeus has just come under attack by an unknown force and we want you to lead a force on the planet's surface to figure out what happened." Captain Rivers said giving me the full debrief.

"Alright so when do we get there?" I asked.

"I believe we should be able to get there in no time. The Everest isn't a very fast ship, but a mass relay can take any ship and send it to another relay in no time. It shouldn't be that long." Captain Rivers answered.

"Alright, I'll get my gear ready." I said saluting before walking back into the elevator.

"Good, I expect great things from one of the Alliance's dreadnoughts." Said the President before Captain Rivers turned off the hologram.

* * *

"The colony appears to be devoid of life. The Spectre still hasn't been sighted, Commander." Reported an SSV Everest officer as the Everest landing shuttle landed in the docking area of a Zeus research station.

"Roger that, I'll report in if I need any assistance." I said as my team of three got out of the landing shuttle.

We began walking through the halls of the research station. We reached the dining area and flipped the light switch. The lights flickered back to life, showing us blood splatter on everything, from the walls to the smallest crumb of leftover food.

"What the hell happened here? So much blood splatter... but there are only a few plates, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of room for a large kitchen staff. Do you think they fought back?" Asked the man to my left.

"Kevin... look over here. I'm pretty sure that this was the leader of the research station." Said the woman soldier bending down to look at a dead man wearing a lab coat and I.D. badge.

"There are no other bodies here. Why leave him here?" I asked myself out loud as Kevin walked over to the female soldier.

"Probably as a warning, maybe this planet has some... primitive creatures walking around it." Said the soldier.

"No offense Julie... but I think they left enough of a warning on the walls." Kevin said looking at the blood splatter on the walls.

"According to the Alliance database... Zeus is a planet with a population of about 10 to 15,000. It got it's name from it's violent lightning storm, which these stations use to power themselves through the use of lightning rods. The planet is rocky with about five very small lakes near the equator. I highly doubt that there are any local creatures." I said closing my omni-tool.

"Well something must had to have caused this... if it wasn't the Geth... then who?" Julie asked as a Drell walked in behind us.

"It was the Greys." Said the Drell as we all turned around.

"The Greys?" I wondered with a questioning look on my face.

"They were the main enemies of the Citadel when they started studying on primitive races around the Earth's Cold War era, in the 1950's and 1960's CE of the Earth. They're favorite test subjects were the humans. They would test your kind for weaknesses in hopes that if you were to ever discover the mass relays and other Prothean artifacts, they would be able to defeat you in armed conflict. It sparked many controversies and conspiracy theories amongst your people." Said the Drell.

"So, why attack us now? They could've attacked us about forty years ago." Kevin said taking out his rifle.

"Calm down Kevin." I said grabbing his rifle.

"But, Commander!" Exclaimed Kevin.

"Don't do anything harsh." I said letting go of Kevin's rifle.

"Yes, sir... Commander." Kevin said with a frustrated face.

"I am a Spectre... I mean you no harm. Come... we should leave this place quickly." Said the Drell Spectre.

"Hold on... I'm not leaving this station until I'm certain that there are no other survivors." I said turning to walk down a hallway to my right.

"Trust me, there is no one left on this station. We should leave immediately." Said the Drell with a hint of urgency in his voice.

"What are you so afraid of?" Julie asked with suspicion in her voice.

"There's a weird alien running through that hallway." I said seeing, what looked like, a brown skinned alien with bright glowing yellow eyes.

The alien had brown skin, bright glowing yellow eyes, no mouth, a black metal cover where it's mouth should have been, two spikes came out of each side of the back of it's neck and came just close enough to the edge of the black cover, the alien looked humanoid in body structure.

"A Collector!?" Exclaimed the Drell in shock as the alien turned to fire an M-8 Avenger assault rifle at the Grey aliens rushing at him with a strange model of assault rifle.

The Grey aliens were the same size as an average human, their bodies were humanoid in construction, their teeth were showing as if they had no lips, their teeth were monstrous and sharp as if they were carnivorous man eaters, they had small human-like noses and squinted black eyes, unlike many council race's armor the grey alien's armor was not sleek or even made of the ablative ceramic plates and kinetic padding that the alliance military's armor was made out of.

"It's the Grey's, you need to go, get back to the Everest!" Exclaimed the Drell pulling out his Carnifex Hand Cannon heavy pistol.

"Wait... we didn't tell you what ship we came from, and it's almost impossible to get any communications through because of the constant lightning storms." I said pulling out my M-8 Avenger assault rifle.

"Get away from him! I'm the Spectre!" Exclaimed the brown alien turning to shoot at the Drell.

"It's you!" Exclaimed the Drell jumping behind a nearby table just before the brown alien could fire.

"Team! Defend the brown alien!" I exclaimed pointing at the tables to give them cover.

"Yes sir!" Exclaimed Kevin and Julie as they rushed over to the tables I had pointed at and began firing at the Grey aliens.

"Theron! I'm coming for you!" Exclaimed the brown alien.

"Bring it, Garrison! I should have killed you after you accused me of betraying the council!" Theron exclaimed firing at the brown alien.

"You did betray the council!" Exclaimed the brown alien.

"They don't need to know that!" Exclaimed Theron as he went back behind cover as I began firing at him.

"What the hell is going on here?" I asked rushing over to the brown alien.

"Hi, I'm Ryker Garrison, the second human spectre." Said Ryker as he took his helmet to show a human head.

"That armor looks so much like skin." I said looking at his armor.

"You can check me out later, we need to kill Theron before he get's away. By the way, congratulations, trust me, you're going to need better armor than the standard issue N7 armor if you're going to be a spectre." Ryker said getting up and firing his rifle at Theron.

I got up and started firing my rifle until I got behind some cover closer to Theron. Over at the second door, Julie was shot in the heart and killed instantly.

"Julie! No!" Kevin exclaimed beginning to step out of cover, while firing his rifle.

Kevin was shot in his left arm and right leg. He crawled over to Julie's body and grabbed her right hand. Just before he begins to speak a grey alien walked up to him and began to step on his head with it's right leg. The grey alien used all of it's force in it's right leg and crushed his head.

"Where's your shuttle?" Ryker asked looking over at me.

"It's still in the docking bay past Theron, why?" I asked looking at him.

"Your two friends didn't make it and now we're going to have the Gray's up our asses here in a minute." Ryker said beginning to fire his assault rifle at the Gray's.

"Theron's making a break for it!" I exclaimed as Theron ran down the hallway.

"Oh well, let him go. We need to get out of here." Ryker said getting up as I began to get up.

Ryker and I ran through the hallways that led to the Everest's shuttle. We rushed into the shuttle and started to take off. The shuttle sped off to the Everest which prepared to leave the system.

"Commander, what did you find?" Asked Captain Rivers as we entered the main deck of the Everest.

"We found strange aliens, and another rogue Spectre. Kevin and Julie... they didn't make it." I said putting my helmet on a nearby table.

"That's too bad, Kevin was going to marry Julie. Now I guess they can at least enter the next world together." Said Captain Rivers.

"Yes sir." I said quietly.

"The Citadel needs to put a stronger leash on their Spectres. They all seem to be going rogue. But, hey, what can you do. We'll be at the Citadel in no time boys, just sit back and take a deep breath." Said Captain Rivers as he began walking to a large galaxy map.

* * *

"It's about time you got here. The council has been waiting for a long time boy. Come we need to get in there." Udina said rushing me into the council chambers.

Inside the chambers, a black Turian with white face paint showing his colony origin stood to the right of an asari, the purple skinned asari stood in the middle, and a hooded gray skinned Salarian stood to the left of the asari.

"We are now hearing about the consideration of a third human Spectre." Said the Asari.

"Please, the Spectres are an elite branch of the Citadel council, not a human college party." Said the Turian.

"I would like to remind you that we do not speak until all of the recommendations have been debated." Said the Asari.

"Yes, ma'am." Said the Turian.

"Let us see, Dakota Gire, Commander in the Systems Alliance Military. Born as a third class citizen on the North American continent on the planet Earth. You are now, not only being recommended for a Spectre position, but also a position in the Earth-born elite... what do you call them... the Blood Dragon Order. The elite of the human military." Said the Salarian reading my file.

"That is correct, sir." I said standing at attention.

"Don't call me sir, commander. I work for a living." Said the Salarian.

"Blood Dragons. I remember when I heard over the news that the 'Blood Dragon Order, has helped in the recapturing of the alien colony of Shanxi.' I couldn't believe that a bunch of lowly evolved monkeys could retake a Turian conquered world." Said the Turian.

"Racist remarks will not be allowed in the council chambers." Said the Asari quickly looking at the Turian.

"Forgive me, ma'am." Said the Turian.

"Continue with the outbursts and, even if you are on the council, I will have you thrown out." Said the Asari with a frustrated voice.

"Yes, ma'am." Replied the Turian.

"Now, with no more outbursts... we can now hear the reasons for the recommendation." Said the Salarian.

"We believe that he belongs in the Spectres because of his selfless service to the Systems Alliance. He has served on the alliance dreadnought SSV Everest, the cruiser SSV Madrid. He recently successfully fought an unknown race and fought off a rogue spectre on the human colony of Zeus." Said Udina.

"A rogue Spectre? Do you mean Saren?" Asked the Turian.

"No, it was the Drell... Theron." Said Ryker standing in the background.

"Theron... impossible. He has served the Spectres galliantly and without question." Said the Salarian.

"That is what we said about Saren." Replied the Asari.

"Another rogue Spectre. I'm starting to believe that we should just eliminate the Spectres before any more go rogue." Said the Turian.

"Enough, do you have any proof of Theron's betrayal?" Asked the Asari.

"Other than my two teammates lying dead on Zeus, which has been occupied by an alien race called the Greys." I answered.

"The Greys? Again?" Asked the Salarian looking at the other two council members.

"Do you know of these people?" Asked Udina.

"We do, they had almost taken all of the Milky Way galaxy back in the year 50 BCE. If it wasn't for the Turians... we probably wouldn't have been able to stop the grey's crusades for many years. They started testing on many primitive races during the 1950's and 1960's CE. Ever since we blockaded their territory in the outer edges of the Milky Way... we have had no contact with them... nor our fleets." Said the Asari.

"You mean... you knew of these people and you never informed any of us. Right now the Earth's position in the Milky Way is not far from the outer rim of the Milky Way. Our home could be in grave danger." Udina said with urgency in his voice.

"Be calm. The Earth System or 'Sol System' is on the move toward the center now. It should stay away from the Greys for now." Said the Salarian.

"Back to the matter at hand councilmen." Said the Turian.

"Of course. In order to debate over the Zeus colony... we will grant Commander Dakota Gire acceptance into the Spectres. But he must be supplied with his own ship by the Systems Alliance. He will also be placed on duty to investigate the Grey threat. We must see if they have any connection to these 'Reapers' if such a thing exists." Said the Asari.

"Thank you councilmen." Said Udina as we all bowed and walked out.

* * *

"So you did get in. That's good to hear. It's time we showed the council that humans can do much more than they realize." Said a hologram of Captain Rivers.

"I'll be heading to Earth immediately. I heard that the Alliance, the Turians, the Salarians, and the Asari have all come together and made a new type of ship for the Systems Alliance." I said talking to the hologram.

"Oh yeah, the new Destroyer class ship. I hear that it's a reliable piece of machinery. Very good choice, Commander." Said Captain Rivers.

"I better go, my shuttle will take off any minute now." I said saluting the Captain.

"Good luck to you, Commander." Said the Captain saluting just before I turned off the hologram.

"Listen. You're going to need more firepower than you've got now to stop the Grey's and the Reapers. I'm coming along with you." Said Ryker.

"Are you sure? We're not even sure that the Greys have even allied themselves with the Reapers." I said turning around to talk to Ryker.

"I've been tracking Theron down for a good two years now. He's already become just as much of a lunatic as Saren. They've both allied themselves with the Reapers. If Theron has allied with the Greys then that could only mean the Greys are with the Reapers too. If only to restart their crusades. I believe that you're going to need help. Even if you agree to take me along, we're going to need as much help as we can get to stop the Grays." Ryker said walking up to me and holding out his hand for a handshake.

"Alright you've got yourself a deal." I said shaking Ryker's hand.

"Okay, here we go." Ryker said as we turned to walk toward the shuttle gate.

The Shuttle took off and headed for the Citadel Mass Relay, This relay would send us straight for Earth, our target city being, Washington, D.C.


	2. Chapter 2

_**A little shorter than last chapter, but I like this chapter a little bit more. This is explaining the time of the Tulvarians, an ancient race of Earth origin. This is an original race so it's not in the canonical Mass Effect storyline, sadly. Anyways enjoy the chapter.**_

**Chapter 2:**  
**The Asari Excavator**

"Welcome, Commanders to Earth. I hope you enjoy your stay." Said a human male wearing a systems alliance military uniform, walking up to Ryker and I in the spaceport terminal.

"We would like to see the new alliance warship." Ryker said crossing his arms.

"I'm sorry, that ship is top secret. How do you guys know about it?" Asked the man.

"Because, we're Spectres, and your orders are to take us wherever we want to go. I'm pretty sure that beats anything you can come up with. So, you might want to take us to that ship... now." I said standing up straight.

"Uh... yeah, alright. Follow me." Said the man turning and walking to the door.

We got into a car outside of the terminal. The man drove the car until we got to a hanger that was being guarded by a goup of soldiers. The man showed his pass and the soldiers let us pass. The soldiers stretched from human to asari, salarian, and turian soldiers. The man continued to drive until we got to the hanger building. We got out of the car and walked into the hangar. We walked into a large room with no ceiling. A large ship sat in the middle of the room.

"This is what you wanted to see, right boys?" Asked the man as we walked up to a Normandy sized vessel sitting in the large hanger.

"Yep, the ship with no name, the Destroyer-class multi-racial cooperation project." Ryker said looking up at the starship.

"Turian cruiser design, human weaponry, salarian medical facilities, and the asari knowledge. Broadside cannons that can send a 1.3 kilogram slug downrange at the same speed as a dreadnought, some of the toughest armor known to the galaxy mixed in with the best kinetic barriers ever created, the fastest and most fuel efficient engines ever created, a faster than light or FTL drive that can use the power of a mass relay for about twenty minutes until you have to disengage and drop the drive, you also get the best medical facilities money can buy, and you get access to the new asari built VEDA program." Said the man explaining all of the features of the ship.

"VEDA?" I asked raising an eyebrow and looking at the man with a questioning look.

"Virtual Extensive Data Archive, VEDA. It's a massive database that is not to be seen by anyone except for the captain of the ship and his second in command. It holds information that only the leaders of the Systems Alliance should know. I cannot stress enough on how much you need to make sure that no one sees this. All of the workers have already sworn an oath of secrecy, but enough of my ramblings, if you want the ship then all they need to know is that you're two spectres... and of course the name that you have picked out for it, and then the ship and it's crew is all yours." Said the man clasping his hands together and looking at us.

"What do you think it should be called?" Ryker asked looking at me.

"I was thinking of naming it after a great empire in Earth history... like the SSV America." I answered looking at Ryker to see if he liked the idea.

"Alright, right this way gentlemen and we can fill out the paperwork saying that we handed over the ship to the new human Spectres. Wow, I sounded just like a car dealer." Said the man chuckling as he led us through a door into an office room.

* * *

"Ma'am, we've located something. It looks like some ruins of a city." Said a human male on the Earth's south pole.

"That's good, the first evidence of an alien race even older than the Protheans. We've finally found it." Said an asari to herself.

* * *

"Welcome Commander, you're just in time to be initiated into the order." Said a man coming to greet us inside the headquarters of the Blood Dragon Order.

We walked into a large room with men in Blood Dragon armor stood holding the flags of their respective national states. A man wearing the armor without his helmet on stood with a sword as if to begin a knighting like the British monarchy years ago. I walked past the men holding the flags and walked up the stairs until I got to the second to the top step. I knelt down and the man tapped both of my shoulders and then raised the sword and tapped my head with it.

"Dakota Gire, Commander in the Systems Alliance elite N7 group, and Spectre member, I now grant upon you, the title of Blood Dragon, the lowest rank of our order, but an important one at that, we cannot allow you to progress our ranks because you are a Spectre, but I will oversee your mission to stop the Greys and Theron from bringing the Reapers into our galaxy. We are the first line of defense that Earth will have, we have always been the first line of defense for the Earth. In order to complete the initiation you must accept this set of Blood Dragon armor, accepting this set of armor means you accept that you will defend Earth no matter what the cost, and you will combat any threat to Earth's security, do you accept what will be placed upon you?" Asked the man holding out a set of Blood Dragon armor.

"I will do anything for the prosperity and security of the human race and it's colonies." I answered taking the set of Blood Dragon armor and standing up.

"Now we must speak the creed of the Blood Dragon Order: 'In time of need we rise, the time for change is near, bound and broken, find strength within yourself, we rise against our fate, pulled together united as one, stay true until the end, We are not the same, but stand together in one voice, our strength in numbers come alive, look back, stop us now, there till the end, our banners we raise above with pride, you'll never get the best of us, in you we stand true, we find strength within ourselves to win a battle against all odds, until the day we rise together for the world to see, we raise our banners on high, when the time comes I will be ready and we will never be the same, unite us all, brothers in arms, unite us, brothers in arms, they will never get the best of us, through the strength in our hearts, you have my back, we will never be divided.' With that, the initiation is complete, everyone is dismissed." Said the man as the flag holders began to walk out of the room.

"Thank you, sir. This is a great honor." I said shaking the man's hand.

"I'm glad you think so, our order has lost many members, but listen... I already have a mission for you. We have just gotten word from our expedition team on Antarctica. They say they have encountered resistance in the ruins of a buried alien city, possibly the city's ancient defenses." Said the man.

"Prothean?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"According to the excavation team... the city was created before the Protheans. This is quite possibly the most well kept city we've ever seen since we found the Protheans on Mars." Answered the man.

"We'll be there in no time." I replied looking at the man with a serious face.

"When you get there, just talk to Dynala. She's the leader of the excavation team, she'll know more about the place than anyone." Said the man.

* * *

"Ma'am the Blood Dragon soldiers that we sent in to rescue the archaeologists haven't come back yet. What are your orders?" Asked a Blood Dragon soldier saluting Dynala.

"The reinforcements should have been here a while ago." Dynala said looking around as one soldier ran up to her.

"A shuttle is coming in, it has the Blood Dragon mark on it." Said the Soldier rushing up to Dynala.

"Good, they're finally here." Dynala said as the shuttle touched down.

"Commander Dakota Gire, and Commander Ryker Garrison reporting for duty ma'am." I said wearing my blood dragon armor as Ryker and I walked out of the shuttle.

"You two are the only reinforcements headquarters could spare?" Dynala asked looking at the both of us.

"Trust me, we're an army of two. You're looking at two human Spectres." Ryker said walking a bit forward.

"You... a human?" Dynala asked looking at Ryker.

"Long story short, I killed an alien... and took it's skin... or armor in this case, look just show us where to go and we'll get the job done." Ryker said with a sigh.

"We lost contact with an archaeologist team that we sent down into the underground city. We sent in a team of Blood Dragon soldiers to find them, but now we've lost contact from them as well." Dynala said looking at the entrance into the underground city.

"Alright it shouldn't take us that long, we'll be back in about fifteen to twenty minutes, that's if we want to go slow." I said walking past Dynala.

"I'm coming with you." Dynala said as Ryker passed her and she began following.

"I think it would be best if you stayed behind sister." I said stopping and turning around to look at Dynala.

"You don't understand, that was my team, I'm not going to just sit here forever hoping that others will be able to help them, I can use a gun. Besides I want to see the city for myself." Dynala said getting a furious look on her face and pulling out a Tempest Submachine Gun.

"Alright, but we're not going to look after you." I said turning and beginning to walk into the entrance as Ryker and Dynala followed.

We began walking down, what we assumed, was the city's main highway. Strangely resembling a human highway system. We continued to walk down the highway, seeing shadows moving through the side streets every now and then. We walked over into what looked like the town hall. We walked up to a console and the console came to life with strange letters forming human paragraphs.

"Strange, these buildings and structures resemble a mix of human and turian in origin." Dynala said just before walking up to the terminal.

"Do you know what that console is saying?" Ryker asked.

"I believe I know enough of the alien language to translate much of it, but the more sophisticated words are beyond my understanding." Dynala answered.

"What does that console say?" I asked anxious after looking out into the street.

"It explains in detail the life in the city. I'll read what it says aloud: 'The Centurion has finally returned to the homeworld. The city has become vibrant for his return, the Tulvarian emperor has prepared all of Vaalbara for the return of the Centurion. The raptor people have been sent to prepare the meals while the native homo-sapiens get to do everything else. The Emperor still hasn't given a name for our homo-sapien brothers. I still say we should have just killed them off.' It appears that these 'Tulvarians' once inhabited the planet Earth." Dynala said after reading the passage on the console before the console went dead again.

"Raptor people... do they mean the turians?" I asked.

"Possibly. The buildings are a mix of human and turian in design. It wouldn't surprise me, wherever these Tulvarians came from, they must have brought a few turians with them." Dynala answered.

"Vaalbara, I'm sorry, I'm not very familiar with that place." Ryker said looking at the Dynala and I.

"Vaalbara was the first supercontinent of the planet Earth. But studies show that humans weren't alive at such an early stage in the planet's history. This makes no sense." Dynala said.

"Come on we better keep moving." I said walking to the door.

We continued through the city, suddenly a strange robot came walking out of a sidestreet. The robot was holding an unknown rifle, and looked similar to a turian. Soon a massive force of these robots came walking out of the side streets.

"Oh, this could be a problem." Ryker said looking at the horde of drones.

"Damn it, nothing can ever be easy. Get behind cover!" I exclaimed as we spread out and used anything for cover.

We ducked behind cover just before the horde began shooting at us. The horde began a slow advance toward us as we began shooting at the first wave. The horde began to fire back as they continued their advance. Ryker moved up behind, what looked like a car, Dynala stayed behind the wall of a building, I moved up and hid behind a statue that stood outside of a large office building. The horde was reduced to about twenty drones before the bots retreated.

"What the hell was that?" Ryker asked getting up from behind the car.

"From the looks of it, that was the city's defense force. It seems that they remained active after the disappearance of the inhabitants." Dynala said as we began walking.

"Do you think that there is another place to get information?" Ryker asked.

"Probably if we continue down this road." Dynala answered.

We continued down the road until we reached a building that resembled the ancient pyramids of Giza. We walked into the building and saw rows of seats stretching around the room, and a holographic projector in the middle of the room. We walked down a flight of stairs and went up to the holographic projector.

"We finally reached it." Dynala said beginning to press buttons on the console.

"Something tells me that you lied to us." I said as Ryker and I held our guns at a ready position.

"Relax, I wasn't going to turn on you. I did lie, we didn't send an archaeologist team into the city, and we didn't send in a search party. The numbers of the Blood Dragon Order are low already, I wasn't going to sacrifice them to find this console, but when we got the reinforcements that I had requested and the two of you showed up, I just couldn't resist." Dynala said typing on the console.

"Why us, and why lie to us when we got here?" Ryker asked trying to get more out of Dynala.

"I didn't mean, you two specifically. But when I saw that they had only sent two here then I thought, 'why not go with them into the ruins and find the console myself?' It would be much easier to move in a group of three and we wouldn't have to sacrifice any more than that if the team didn't come back. Besides I lied to you because I requested reinforcements by saying that we had come under heavy fire and it essentially became a war zone. So to keep you two from snitching on me, I decided to lie." Dynala said still typing.

"What's so damn important that you dragged us down here for it?" I asked getting impatient.

"This." Dynala said activating the holographic projector.

A picture of a primitive planet Earth was projected on the hologram.

"The planet of Illonia, population 10,000,000,000. The planet of Illonia, the homeworld of the Tulvarian Empire. Rulers of all the galaxy, also known as the third world, the planet orbits the star of byrene. The warring groups of the homo-sapiens have continued for millenia. The lizard-like creatures called 'dinosaurs' have long since died out. Now the Tulvarian empire has stretched out and has conquered all of the former continent of Pangea. Tulvarian armies have enslaved the homo-sapiens. The year is 43,000,000 BCE, and the Tulvarian Empire has now stretched outward in the Milky Way galaxy, nearly conquering all that stand before them. Skip ahead to 23,000,000 BCE. The homo-sapiens have reached a mid-point in their evolution and now a threat looms overhead. The Reapers, a race of unknown creatures have come and are threatening the survival of the Tulvarian race and it's slaves." Said the hologram before going blank.

Suddenly a picture of a Grey appeared on the hologram as primitive humans rushed for safety.

"The Greys, once thought to have been a fringe threat, now threatens the survival of the sentient races. As the ruler of the galaxy, the Tulvarians have taken an oath to protect it's slave species'. Humans stand as a strong military force as the Greys begin to push the Tulvarian forces back. Tulvarian forces rushed behind human lines, the brutal Greys pushing forward. Armed with spears, swords, armor, and shields, the humans prepare to fight their war with the Greys. The organized forces of the humans beat back the Greys with men to spare as the humans retook the western continents. Earthquakes rock the continents, seemingly under the might of the human armies, the continents broke apart, forming the present seven strange new continents. The small landmass that remained under Tulvarian control moved to become the new south pole of the planet. The humans, were forced into underground bunkers by the few Tulvarians still on the planet.... system failure, data corrupted. System shutting down." Said the hologram before the holographic projector died.

"Earth... it was the Tulvarian homeworld. Humans were their slaves, along with the Turians and who knows how many other species. This is an incredible discovery. It also seems that the hologram determined where the continents of the earth were and what they looked like. But it didn't record any events that make up the rest of the time from then to now." Dynala said trying to reactivate the projector.

"That's great, come on... we need to go." I said putting my hand on Dynala's right shoulder, signalling that we were leaving.

"You're right. We'll send in the alliance military and then we can get more information from the city. We better return topside and let everyone know that we are alright." Dynala said getting up

* * *

"Are you leaving?" Dynala asked as the shuttle returned us to Washington D.C.

"Yeah, that's the plan." Ryker said walking up to the ship.

"I'm coming with you, it sounds like you're going to run into a lot of Tulvarian ruins. I'm not going to pass up a chance to see them." Dynala said following Ryker.

"No way. You can't come with us sister." Ryker replied turning to face Dynala.

"Ryker, we're going to need allies, wherever we find them. The Blood Dragon Order has given us a list of people we should seek out. So, quit standing there and come on." I said walking into the ship as Ryker and Dynala followed.

The ship disengaged from the hangar's clamps and made it's way into Earth's orbit and to the Charon Mass Relay, beginning the search for a new teammate, a Turian on the Athens civilian station in the Athens system of the Artemis Tau cluster.


End file.
